“Spring is coming…” has been the promise and the invitation we’ve heard this Lenten season. In worship, in self-reflection, in study, and in service, our congregation has yielded to the reminder that in Christ, all things will be made new, life will come from even the deadest of places. That’s the promise that will carry us into and through our experience of Holy Week this year.
But this year’s Holy Week feels a bit different to me, partly, I think, because our church has also been working throughout Lent to freshen our spaces and our public-facing materials by Easter. So as David and Jake select anthems for the choir to sing on Good Friday, Amy maps out the myriad of ways our new logo will live on everything from t-shirts to bulletins, pens, and mugs. As the Worship Ministry Team prepares all the setup plans for Holy Week, the House & Grounds Committee takes a final building walkthrough to map out tasks for the church work day.
Scott, Linda, and Carol plan Holy Week mid-day contemplative worship for our downtown working neighbors.
Jill, Joanne, and Meredith write about the Palm Sunday coat collection and coordinate logistics for the children’s Lenten Workshop.
Kara, Kate, and Mitch sketch out banners and reimagine our social media strategies.
Ralph, Linda, and Jerri pick out flowers for the big new pots on our church house’s front porch and order the palm branches for Sunday’s worship.
Barry designs a new frame for our flower cross.
Each of these pieces and those who have done them so generously have worked together to create a landscape fertile with possibility, rich with hospitality, and abundant in hope. Together, they tell the story to us and our neighbors: God is at work! The Spirit is moving among us here! There is new life, new creation, new imagination for how God might use the people who have planted and rooted at 501 West Fifth to be a people of bold love and boundless compassion. But it is a story that needs your voice in the midst! We’d be so honored for you to be a part.
This Holy Week as we wave the palms, wash the hands, take the bread, drink the cup, dim the lights, extinguish the candles, wait at the tomb, and awaken to the truth that love is stronger than death, might we extend an invitation, might we share our story, might we throw wide the doors?
For spring is coming!
Together in the work of Love,
Pastor Emily